


take the train to the top of the world, and i'm there, i'm home

by singingaboutwishing



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Gen, canon will be in its room, i love donna moss, making no noise and pretending it doesn't exist
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:08:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27167698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/singingaboutwishing/pseuds/singingaboutwishing
Summary: in february 1998, donnatella diane moss is not unceremoniously dumped. she does not to go work on jed bartlet’s presidential campaign. she stays until she gets into a car accident in april, at which point she decides it’s time for a change.donna moss, new yorkerhas a nice ring to it.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 21





	take the train to the top of the world, and i'm there, i'm home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [crystallineirises](https://archiveofourown.org/users/crystallineirises/gifts).



> for crystallineirises, my eternal west wing muse, who told me that janel moloney lives in brooklyn and indulged me when i became attached to this idea of donna as a new yorker.

i. spring

the day donna moss moves to new york city, the flowers are blooming.

she and her parents carry boxes, a couch, a bed up the stairs and unpack just enough to live on while she settles.

the scent of magnolias drifts in and starts to replace the must.

her mother squeezes her hand and her father kisses her forehead before they board the plane back home and donna nearly starts crying.

she takes the subway back to her apartment and doesn’t get lost.

she is twenty-four years old and she is no longer anyone’s free ride.

she hears singing from one of the other apartments near her.

she opens the window.

ii. summer

city summers are nothing short of magic, she decides.

she does yoga in central park with her friends from work every saturday.

warm evenings out on her fire escape are what dreams are made of.

she goes to bars in every borough and she bats her eyes until strangers buy her drinks.

she leaps and twirls through the sidewalks hand-in-hand with her almost-boyfriend, the intern who will inevitably leave but they’re having too much fun to care.

she’s nearly broke and always sweating but, _oh_ , she is alive.

the toddlers shout and splash through the fountain in washington square park.

donna breaks out in a grin and takes off running.

iii. fall

the chill starts to set in and her almost-boyfriend leaves but donna doesn’t mind; she’s got a million blankets and an eternal hot drink in her hand.

she finds a tan trench coat in a thrift store that fits like it was made for her, and she never wants to take it off.

every morning starts with a dollar coffee from the guy with the cart at the end of her block, her new best friend.

when it gets too cold for yoga, she starts spending her saturday mornings curled up in a chair at the strand, reading anything and everything she can find.

she goes to halloween parties with her friends and lets them pin gold clips in her hair and put her in a white greek goddess dress that it’s entirely too cold to be wearing.

cosmopolitans are replaced by spiced cider, but she never stops batting her eyes.

she and her friends stumble home, laughing as the leaves drift over their heads.

iv. winter

the snowflakes start to fall and donna starts walking to work in boots and putting her heels on when she gets there.

she gets a cat, a grouchy orange chunk of a cat that curls up in her bed at night and proves to be an excellent heat source.

she goes home with cute guys in sweaters and cute girls in scarves and relishes in the impermanence and anonymity of it all.

the two-foot-tall christmas tree in the corner of her apartment is decorated with dollar store tinsel, but it’s real and her apartment smells like pine.

her coffee guy shows her pictures of his baby niece and it warms her more than the coffee does.

she cuddles with her friends and they watch hallmark movies that make them laugh at how terrible they are and cry anyway.

donna goes to wisconsin for christmas.

she flies back on january second and is greeted with sirens and traffic and street performers.

her heart rate slows.

v. spring

it is donna’s second spring as a new yorker and life feels like an old swing jazz record: upbeat and sparkling and fabulous.

she and her friends start up yoga again.

she puts a little herb garden on her kitchen counter and now everything is eaten with basil and lemon thyme and dill.

she switches from hot coffee to iced coffee, but she never stops going to her guy at the end of the block.

she takes the subway home from work without even looking at the map.

her window is open all the time now.

she hears singing from one of the other apartments near her.

she climbs onto the fire escape and sings along.

**Author's Note:**

> title from “finale” from in the heights (does it *really* correlate to this fic? no. am i a sucker for musical theatre? yes. idk, i just thought it kinda fit the vibe).
> 
> anyway donnatella diane moss deserves everything good in the whole world.
> 
> all my love.


End file.
